* Keep in mind that Pena Nieto is the arch-enemy of the financial savior of the New York Times, Carlos Slim. The current president of Mexico finally pushed through anti-monopoly legislation that has knocked, last I checked, about $20 billion off Slim’s net work.
* The guy sure has a motor. Really toning it down, I like him more every day.
* Trump’s position has been clear and consistent all along:
1. Build the wall.
2. Enforce our laws.
3. Immediate deportation of criminals and gang members.
4. Mandate e-verify, punish employers who knowingly hire illegals.
5. No welfare for illegals.
Once this is all done, there will be no new supply of illegals and many who are already here will leave because the jobs and welfare will dry up. Trump will not send deportation squads around to round up illegals (bad optics-the media would have a field day with that), but he also will never support a broad amnesty for all. He might allow some limited amnesty for a small percentage of illegals. It’s a good program, exactly what we need.
* Trump’s remarks in Mexico City after his meeting with Nieto were superb! Clear, direct, calm and polite yet unapologetic and patriotic. Of course, the MSM will make sure the voters never see or hear them.
If Trump can repeat this performance during the debates, he’s got a fighting chance.
David P. Goldman writes: In the current issue of Commentary my friend Rabbi Meir Soloveichik discusses J.R.R. Tolkien’s fascination with the Jews, who are of course the Dwarves in the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as Tolkien himself stated in a 1971 BBC interview. Tolkien was no anti-Semite (not, at least, according to the canonical definition, namely someone who hates the Jews more than is absolutely necessary). His views in The Hobbit were typical of the philo-Semites of the 1930s: the Jews/Dwarves are “calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people…if you don’t expect too much.”
In the Lord of the Rings, completed after the Holocaust, Tolkien turned more sympathetic, depicting a great Elf-Dwarf friendship, and presaging (as Rabbi Soloveichik points out) a Jewish-Christian alliance against the forces of evil. One might add that in the Silmarillion, Tolkien’s early (but posthumously published) compendium of Middle-Earth mythology, the Dwarves were created before the Elves, just as the Jews came before the Christians–but by mistake, in Tolkien’s account.
In the Dwarves’ quest for their ancient homeland in the Lonely Mountain, Rabbi Soloveichik observes, Tolkien evinces a certain sympathy for Zionism.
But all this begs the question of what put the Jews at the center of Tolkien’s attention in the first place. Part of the answer is to be found in Tolkien’s lifelong effort to undo the pernicious influence of Richard Wagner, whose “Ring of the Nibelungs” is the most influential art work of the past two hundreds years (and in my view also the most pernicious). Wagner plundered the ancient Norse and Germanic sagas in the service of a revived paganism. Tolkien by contrast set out to repurpose the old pagan stories to make them a sounder foundation for the Christianity that would succeed them.
In Wagner’s pageant of gods and heroes, the aristocracy (the gods) establish their rule by treaties (covenants). But in order to maintain their rule they must hire the Giants (capital and labor) to build their fortress Valhalla, and steal the cursed gold of the Nibelung dwarves (the Jews). Wagner made clear in his writings and correspondence that the nasty Nibelungen were the Jews, whom he really, really hated. In one of his last writings he claims that the point of the Eucharist is to purge the communicant of pollutants to Aryan blood, in particular to remove the stain of Jewish blood from Jesus himself. Wagner stole the plot of his breakthrough opera “The Flying Dutchman” from one Jew (Heinrich Heine) and its musical portrayal of the sea from another Jew (Felix Mendelssohn), and then published a pamphlet alleging that Jews could only imitate but not create new art.
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There is another thing to consider about the differences between August 1991 and now. It isn’t quantifiable; it won’t fit on a mayoral white paper, there are no numbers to it.
But it was reported, with a video, by Tribune journalists Megan Crepeau and Erin Hooley a few days ago under the headline: “Heckling and gunfire as police investigate shooting: ‘We’re just playing.’”
Police were investigating reports of a shooting in bloody Englewood when about 10 young men confronted them, harassed them, mocked them on the street, hurling epithets, angry, defiant.
“Every cop saw that video,” O’Connor said. “One big difference is that now, on the street, there is no fear. Even in the ’90s, with all the killing, the gangs feared the police. When we’d show up, they’d run. But now? Now they don’t run. Now, there is no fear.”
Videophones, social media, the President, the press: all factors have come together to encourage these kind of dominance displays by street thugs.
If the cops whomp a mouthy teen, the video will go global. Hillary will retweet it.
If the cops don’t, the video will go local of the thugs showing off their street cred.
In this video, the cops behave as best they can, engaging in their own dominance display, slowly advancing ominously on the thugs.
But it’s a waste of time and emotional energy when the cops are there to investigate a shooting.
A more subtle effect of these dominance displays is to further terrify witnesses who might help the cops find the shooter. If the cops are barely in control of their own crime scenes, good luck to you when the cops go home and you are left behind with these guys.
COMMENTS:
* Cell phone videos keeping police from getting out of their cars to work seems to be the big explanation.
Sure cell phones have been able to take video for a while. But even four years ago not many people living in the hood had phones with more than token video cameras and easy to use software. Instead these were limited to people who spent $300+ on good phones on expensive 2-year contrasts. Also four years ago you generally would have to move the video from the phone to a PC to the web, which in turn required a computer and some basic computer skills.
These days you can get a smartphone for $50 with decent video and easy software, and then use prepaid cards even if you have bad credit. You can then easily with a few clicks send it to the web directly from the phone, and rely on someone else to properly edit it for viral distribution.
* Most of us want aggressive policing to keep feral blacks from running rampant over white society, but unfortunately when you create aggressive cops you create a Frankenstein monster that will eventually turn on white citizens.
The following video is frightening: It shows a cop with 25+ years experience assaulting a white kid and threatening to frame him with false charges for merely asserting his Fourth Amendment rights:
* What would be involved practically in the trial creation of an American Bantustan, a defined zone like an Indian reservation where these gentlemen could live free of The Man’s harmful influence? It could have its own government and flag and everything. We could air-drop in weaves. They need those.
I don’t wear them, myself.
Reading BLM’s demands I almost want to say “okay, maybe we can give you summadat.” At the very least some independence and self-determination. The free stuff? Ha ha. I don’t think so.
A pilot project could start small (some Indian rezzes are tiny) and grow from there.
The hard part comes (1) in enforcing its border, so the beneficiaries can’t easily get out to bother us, and (2) when it gets ugly and The Well-Meaning want to rush in and rescue it. We’d have to be very clear, “you wanted self-determination, you got it. Good luck.”
* It has to be kept in mind that about a third of the black population is mentally borderline by white standards. Add bad habits and attitude to that and you have a large population of people who are unemployable. Just look at who’s in Special Ed classes. Hanging around on the streets playing big-shot is all they’re capable of. What can be done about this millstone?
* Not only do copettes shun the graveyard shift (despite shift differential bonuses), but they tend to eschew patrol work altogether. After putting in the bare minimum of required time on the road, most female officers migrate into the plethora of support positions that pay the same as patrol but present much less chance of breaking a nail. School liaison, hiring officer, training officer, desk officer — why, the possibilities are endless! Someone’s gotta be the Public Information Officer, right? Why not the best looking chick on the department? Yeah — THATS the ticket! If your department happens to be one of the lucky ones that’s under a federal consent decree, you will have an entire bureau devoted to nothing but overseeing and assisting with “compliance” to DOJ edicts…and that bureau will be 75% female.
Meanwhile, the Patrol Division will be 90% male, and they become the $#!t magnets at whom everyone wags an admonishing finger. Amusingly, much of this finger-wagging is internal, and comes from the very females who fled the streets for more friendly confines. Such “dinosaurs”, they sniff. “Knuckle-draggers” . “Neanderthals”. It’s a funny old world, indeed.
* When I used to teach freshman (first year) students on a compulsory course at my University, one of the more tiring aspects was having to engage in dominance displays with the black (Afro-Caribbean) male students. Afro-Caribbean female students could also be disruptive, shouting & in one case banging the wall, but didn’t do these ‘challenge’ display vs the lecturer – in fact no other students did this that I can recall. And these were pretty good students (when they finally sat down & paid attention), mostly above average in terms of preparation, contribution & work compared to most of the more passive South Asian Muslim students.
* Black Church Ladies (hereinafter BCLs) don’t commit violent crime and are hurt when their grandbabies are killed, maimed, injured or incarcerated, whether or not the action was justified, provoked or reasonable or not. One often has the human reaction of sympathizing with them. Indeed, occasionally their misfortunes are undeserved.
But they are still part of the problem and not part of the solution in most cases.
They are, again for the most part, little kids in adult bodies, kids who will never and can never grow up.
They will defend and protect their babies and grandbabies even if grandbaby is a dangerous, large, aggressive predator.
They will not cooperate with the police.
While they are rarely violent, the percentage of those who will participate in property crimes like shoplifting is high.
And of course they vote-however their Big Man tells them to vote. They will vote more than once if not too carefully watched, too. They also have a propensity for collecting not only their own Social Security but that of misreported or unreported deceased members of The Community when feasible.
* I might suggest that if the Police are in the middle of a “silent strike,” and they very likely are, black folks will know it, and both the police and blacks will act accordingly. The blacks know they have to do something egregious before the police will detain, and especially arrest them. The police would prefer to let the shitheads dominate their own neighborhood.
I’ve seen the LA County-wide police “silent strike” happen firsthand prior to the Rodney King riots. In fact, the “silent strike” emboldened the rioting immensely. The strike was called after a few blacks, on different occasions, died in their holding cell, and city attorney’s gave some officers a very hard time, that the police union thought were extremely unfair. Hence, the “secret strike,” during which Police would “catch and release” all but the most obnoxious crimes committed by black offenders. This emboldened neighborhood black criminals who consequently murdered each other more. It’s the collective way police department say, “what would your neighborhoods be without our significant influence? Enjoying yourselves, are you?”
If you view the video that way, it makes more sense. The blacks are daring the police to arrest one of them because they know the police don’t want to. A very perverse game of “chicken.” Sometimes, it can get out of hand, as we’ve seen.
* Women in the military and the police forces share the same proclivity as their civilian sisters for asserting the need for equality with males and then hunker down in soft, safe, air conditioned jobs. As a generalization, feminists want equal pay and social status with males … but they pass standing in line for jobs that are physically demanding or dangerous such as road oiling crews, roof tarring crews, or walking the beat in the hood. As we all know, if they are on road construction crews, they get to hold the signs.
From the feminist perspective, executive secretaries in their air conditioned offices in another era now holding the title and pay of Vice-President will do just fine, thank you. In the US military, their counterparts are permanently assigned senior female aides at headquarters locations with the rank of Lt. Colonel. This is an illusional and delusional as the makeup on the faces … but it keeps the peace.
Feminists who raise sons often see through this. Camille Paglia is one of them. She suggests that women (and feminists) should occasionally thank their male counterparts for streets, water, electricity, housing and skyscrapers, safe borders, and the rest of the social and physical infrastructure that constitutes advanced civilization … and to stop being so whiny and needy.
* Black Lives Matter is a “pay-to-go away” scam. In the best tradition of Jesse Jackson, BLM will protest, interfere with commerce, interrupt public gatherings, and block freeways until they are paid enough to disappear for awhile. And, of course, the deal includes immunity from prosecution for all of the laws they may have broken. In some cases, the threat of interference is as good as interference itself.
Essential to the scam is to make outlandish demands such as free tuition for all Blacks and the forced closure of all White private schools. This increases their cash flow by motivating Whites to get to the payout scenario and up the ante as quickly as possible. In some cases, the payoff is a high paying position as a “professional Black” who acts as an adviser to the wider community on how to keep BLM from coming back. In others, BLM arranges payoffs from foundations to take a closer look at Black social issues. Years ago they called these kinds of arrangements “protection rackets”.
In most cases, BLM protests are organized and led by university educated Blacks … or, at least they attended universities where they matriculated on how to become “professional Blacks”. All things considered, their anti-social behaviors are a step above the mindless killing and mindless rioting that afflict the Black underclass. Indeed, they are following the example of Hussein Obama in Chicago in offering themselves as the interface between Black communities and the White ruling class … although in the BLM case they are acting as freelance community organizers. As with the Obama DOJ, at its best the BLM serves the positive social function of keeping the Black underclass mollified and in its place … for a fee.
* Young girls throw themselves at thugs. It’s a status symbol for underclass females. Lord knows I saw enough of that situation as a teacher.
* Even beyond the multi-culti nonsense, “compassionate liberalism” is just incompatible with civilization.
To run a civilization you have to have a method to *exclude* people who refuse to abide by its norms. You can hang, draw and quarter them, execute them more humanely, lock them up … or simply expel them. But if you want civilization you need norms and you need to exclude those who refuse to follow the norms.
The “liberals” yak, yak, yak about “gun crime”, but as is clear from some of these cases, they refuse to actually *exclude* gun toting criminals from society. “The system” will lock up some gangbanger for some criminal act … then parole him back out. The cops will catch him again, illegally packing a piece … then “the system” lets him back out. Any effort expended actually locking up these scumbags, immediately brings some whine about “too many black men behind bars” or “the school to prison pipeline” or some other such excuse making crap. But if you want civilized society, you must insist on civilized behavior.
Personally, i like expulsion. That’s what our ancient hunter gather ancestors could do. If you don’t like it … leave. If you won’t obey the tribes norms … leave. Let’s have a devil’s island scenario. Young men do criminal nonsense–you are gone and *never* coming back. Problem solved.
Steve Sailer writes: Buckley didn’t age particularly well. None of us do, but he had been such a spectacular figure of boyishness during the youth-obsessed late 1960s that the inevitable tolls of aging took a particular toll on him. So it’s hard to explain to younger people who only knew him from late in life the role he played from, say, 1965-1975. It’s like how New York sportswriters who had been telling youngsters how great Willie Mays had been in the 1950s before the Giants moved to San Francisco, didn’t appreciate having the 40 something Willie traded to the Mets in the 1970s.
In strange ways, the Buckley phenomenon was related to the British Invasion phenomenon of 1964. Suddenly, American culture was overwhelmed by charming young men with a certain feline wit that was related to but refreshingly different from what Americans were used to. Buckley, an actual English public school boy, was a sort of John Lennon for American conservatives.
* I remember as a kid seeing him on daytime tv talk shows, and thinking he was really cute, and so English looking and sounding. He made “conservative” sound sexy. The host, Cavett, had uber-lib Jonathan Kozol on shortly after Buckley, and Cavett began to say something admiring of Buckley when the conversation turned to a certain topic. Kozol cut him off and spat something about privileged nincompoops (gist of it) who mock poor black people — the only kind Kozol cares about, although I think Buckley was referring as much as to poor whites — who have lots of children the taxpayers support and who grow up to make war on the hands that fed them. I thought if people like Kozol were as compassionate towards poor whites as they were toward blacks, maybe some sort of detente could be achieved in the lib-conserve dichotomy.
Something of Buckley’s charms were still in tact when he hosted Brideshead Revisited in the 80s but I hardly recognized him in his last decade. Still pretty sharp and made you think, but he probably wouldn’t impress many young people who hadn’t known of him when he was a younger man.
* Yeah, its rare you see a person with a high IQ really age in the face the way Buckley did. I’ve seen hillbillies who look, well, I mean the density of their wrinkles could not be greater and their only like 55 or so. But I was thinking, If Buckley took ritalin all his life, he would have to take a hell of a lot ritalin after twenty years, thirty years etc. to feel an effect at all, and his son did mention his doctor always kept him supplied with a stash. I think we can speculate that Bill Buckley may have taken as much ritalin in his life as anybody ever has. And no one has ever mentioned this: all of Buckley’s little quirky mannerism, the hyper pen in his mouth, the slouching, the tilting in the chair, the way he sped up his sentences and slowed them down and back up again—that is all absolutely the ritalin. Some people call the way their voice changes on adderall the adderall drawl. I’m wondering if that was the reason of his unique accent—which, also people don’t mention, his voice definitely deepened and “normalized” as he got really old, and the ritalin effect wore off, watch his last charlie rose interview for instance. Anyways, I suspect all that ritalin took that deep toll on his face. Though interestingly, Gore Vidal’s face aged about the same way too.
* Does that include his habitual lizard-like flick of the tongue?
* Buckley and Vidal wound up looking alike. It’s pretty weird. It might make an interesting movie: have one actor play two archrivals, but with enough makeup that you can’t initially tell he’s playing both roles.
* WF Buckley was a pilot during WWII. He didn’t fly in combat, but he trained other pilots. The Army Air Corp handed out a lot of speed to its pilots. I can recall WFB telling a story about him staying 5 days in a row at Yale in the late 1940s to take his finals, and then going for a flight to celebrate but falling asleep while soloing.
* He had a sailor’s face – wrinkled by sun/wind damage.
"This guy knows all the gossip, the ins and outs, the lashon hara of the Orthodox world. He’s an [expert] in... all the inner workings of the Orthodox world." (Rabbi Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff)
